


These Ties That Bind

by Jaddoxs



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Blackwatch Era, Emotional, Flashbacks, Gen, Hanamura (Overwatch), M/M, Mental Anguish, Pre-Fall of Overwatch, Pre-Recall, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-05-28
Updated: 2018-05-27
Packaged: 2019-05-14 06:09:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,989
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14764112
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jaddoxs/pseuds/Jaddoxs
Summary: Agents Jesse McCree and Genji Shimada navigate life in Blackwatch.They get more than they bargain for, and in the end of it all, more than they could ever regret.





	These Ties That Bind

Overwatch had a dossier on Genji Shimada. The ‘spare to the heir’ of the Shimada clan, which ruled a pre-eminent and ancient criminal empire in the city of Hanamura. Traits listed as ‘care-free’ and ‘principled’ could be found underneath his primary description as being trained in ‘ninjutsu’. Agent Jesse McCree gave the term a cursory search; a martial art primarily associated with ninjas.

‘Huh. A bona fide ninja?’ Jesse queried with a simultaneously jaded yet perplexed tone. Jesse had taken his cigar out of his mouth to make this inquest which was unusual. He typically navigates it to the side and continues to suck on the tobacco, allowing him to ruminate on the rustic and dry flavours that reminded him of his life in Santa Fe.

‘Command suggested he would be a prime Blackwatch candidate McCree’ Agent Gabriel Reyes drolly exclaimed without looking up from the monitor he was watching.

Reyes rarely looked up to speak to Jesse. Whether it was from a trust so strong that Reyes need not validate it further, or a sincere apathy to whatever response Jesse could possibly give he did not know. Either way Jesse couldn’t help but feel disappointed in Reyes’ inability to divert attention to him in even idle small-talk.

It was a common feature in Overwatch, although many were caring few were actively involved to a degree as Jesse was to make a friendship of any kind viable. Many agents operated independently and had lives to lead when not engaging in operations or sorting formalities at headquarters. The gunslinger had no one to visit in his off-days. His nonchalant charm avoiding any suspicion of longing. Although Reyes was as invested in Overwatch as Jesse, he was often absent, head-deep in work or carousing with other elites, far-removed from his early days of disciplining and teaching Jesse as he adapted to a life outside of Deadlock.

‘Sounds handy’, Jesse proffered, placing the cigar back between his now dry lips after the scent of a continuable conversation died out. He continued to examine the dossier.

Intelligence suggested Shimada had an exploitable apathy to the clan which would make him valuable as an information source, aside from his physical attributes. Given the recent death of the paterfamilias Sojiro Shimada, it would not be long before Hanzo Shimada took the reigns of the empire under his control and attempted to bring Genji into the fold. Jesse assumes it was the reason for their prompt boarding upon the shuttle to recruit him.

Genji had a lithe but muscular figure in the biography, black tasseled hair and a fair complexion caught the sun of the photograph, his mottled umber eyes were pokey yet soft in their examination of the camera, a sense of inquisition.

The harsh and uninviting metal shuttle rattled over the yellow gas-lit street lamps of Hanamura as Jesse and Reyes descended via harness. They had identified Genji’s private apartment in the complex. Although not a covert mission, Reyes was interested in not attracting undue attention.

As Jesse and Reyes turned a garden corner they were immediately fired upon by a ceremonial guard standing by a broken door. Reyes dispatched him with two blasts from his shotguns in quick succession.

‘T’Hell boss?! Y’said that the public could tour the complex!’ Jesse exclaimed. His voice unintentionally bellowing uninhibited through the low-statured oriental gardens of the night.

Reyes gnarled in a disgruntled tone, ‘They can. He shouldn’t have had any reason to open fire at us’.

As the two approached the broken door they saw the scene of what appeared to be an intense battle. A royal blue rug in the middle of the room was surrounded by silk cushions and a smattering of crimson blood, pints worth.

‘What the fuck happened?’.

Jesse did not reply. Instead as he surveyed the room he saw a forearm and hand strewn behind a blue silk settee. The skin was sliced deeply and repeatedly.

‘Boss!’ Jesse panted as he scrambled clumsily over the toppled mahogany table to find Genji Shimada lying in a pool of his own blood. Holes in his trousers showed swaths of skin singed scarlet from fire; Jesse assumes he was pushed into the nearby fireplace. The right side of his torso macerated with blade incisions. A prominent swipe had caught his forehead and extended to his lips, amongst numerous other superficial although meaningful cuts, likely from being dragged through glass. A gash from his chin continued to the base of his throat.

‘Shit’, extolled Reyes. His opened lips showing teeth gritted, an attempt to hold back a host of additional profanities. ‘Jesse watch him’.

‘W-what?!’. The gunslinger was uncertain of what to do. First-aid training covered treating singular types of injuries not all of them at once, and none as extensive as this.

‘This is Agent Reyes requesting immediate extraction. We have numerous hostiles in the compound and the target has been compromised. I repeat, I am requesting immediate extraction’.

As Reyes continued to survey the perimeter of the house, Jesse gawked over the lifeless body. Slight trembles in his movement indicated he was still breathing. He gently swept the resting shards of glass off, abstaining from applying any pressure. Unwrapping his black wool serape, he tautly pulled it across the ninja’s abdomen, the wool proving a thick insulator against the blood. He would have to apply more very soon.

‘Now hang in there y’hear?’ Jesse commanded as he relocated Genji’s head to his lap. Moments after his eyelids ripped open, the same pokey eyes that Jesse had seen in the dossier photograph appeared. His eyebrows furled, with fear and confusion being conveyed in equal measure whilst locking to Jesse’s uneven expression of surprise and reassurance. The ninja fixated on his eyes, seeming to find refuge in the docks of his pupils in a sea of brown.

Genji gasped for air in uneven and powerful motions until he faded out of consciousness again moments later; the jolt gave Jesse a shock. Jesse placed the palms of his soft yet worn, hands over the cheeks of the victim, taking no notice of the blood that seeped out of every infliction. Jesse momentarily reminisced on the meaning of Genji’s rapid eye movements.

‘Boss? Boss! He’s dying!’.

Reyes turned to the experienced yet junior agent and proceeded to lift Genji’s legs, without much tact or care. ‘Grab his hands. We’re taking him to the courtyard for evac, the biotics on-board can tide him over.’

‘We can’t let him die! He’s scared solid for his life!’.

‘He won’t die; the info he has is vital!’. Reyes grunted incredulously, as if the latter half of Jesse’s sentence had never entered his ears.

Reyes fixation on the information surprised Jesse; when he looked into the eyes of Reyes he could no longer see the same man who had taken an interest in saving Jesse from a lifetime of confinement. In hindsight, Reyes had been under immense pressure lately. The gunslinger’s tendency to overthink minute changes in response was often his undoing.

They managed to bundle him up into the shuttle through a harness, what damage they did in the process through lack of care was negligible to his current condition. The blades of the aircraft rotated violently, shaking the garden and surely alerting the compound to their presence. Under the harsh, stark white light of the garden lamps, the petals of the cherry trees began to retreat in the thousands to the currents of the winds, the light catching them in a dazzle of pink and silver, over the railing and into the city below.

Jesse pressed onto his hat heavily as it attempted to escape him. The sides of his hair bombarding his eyes in a whipping fashion. ‘What are we gonna do now boss?!’ Jesse shouted over the noise of the propellers.

‘I want you to accompany him to Zurich. You know how to use the biotics-bed; it’ll keep him stable until he can get actual treatment. I want Dr. Angela Ziegler working on this. You hear me?! The target will be as good as dead the moment he leaves that bed if it’s anyone else’.

Reyes had been shouting the whole time, but by now red alert lights had begun flashing around the compound. ‘You accompany him. We have a safe house in the city I can use’.

‘Y’mad? Just come with us they can’t shoot us down!’ Jesse protested, frowning at the thought of leaving Reyes behind, growling in determination to bring him home.

By this point however Reyes had attached the chord to Jesse’s harness and he was being hoisted away. Not one for sentimentality in times of crisis, Reyes didn’t even turn to see Jesse off before he began expending his shotgun shells towards a dispatch of guards, and proceeding to dart through the exit to the compound; the petals were still dancing on the air streams around him, shadowing his departure.

‘You asshole!’, Jesse shouted as he was pulled up into the shuttle.

Jesse hoisted the bloody and visceral being to the bed and immediately set it to the ‘preservation of life’ protocol. The spartan medical table merely began emanating a vibrating hum to indicate it was working. Advances in nano-biology made this possible thanks to Dr. Ziegler, he knew this much, although he was unaware that she was co-operating with Overwatch.

Genji’s body was a war zone. The legs were not only burnt but looked crushed by severe pressure, the scarlet of the skin had begun to turn a dark and pernicious purple. He hoped it was due to bruising and nothing more. The bleeding had been halted although it had dried all over his torso, leaving an unappealing and gruesome red crust to his abdomen. 

Jesse sank into a chair beside the table in the small medical room at the rear of the shuttle.

‘So you’re the famous Genji Shimada, socialite and ninja?’. Jesse proceeded to light a cigar from his belt pouch, the click of his lighter bouncing off the narrow walls. ‘Well if first impressions are anything t’go by... you’re one tough sonuvabitch y’know that?’.

Jesse felt uncomfortable in silence, he enjoyed making conversation which made life at Overwatch difficult for him. He was reminded by this moment to ask Reyes to set up a game night. He attempted to pass off the suggestion as a part of his flippant cowboy charm, but Jesse was eager to find some ‘normal’ company aside from training and polite small-talk.

‘Well if this Dr. Ziegler is anything like her reputation you’re gonna be in real safe hands y’hear?’.

Jesse rested his cigar on an ashtray, tipped his hat over his eyes, gave one more glance over the ninja and proceeded to doze off. He had received little sleep before the impromptu mission and it was hard enough to grab anyway. It gave him a reprieve from the worries of Reyes, and his approval, the daily grind, the life of the man he barely knew but had avoided deep sentiments over. He was choosing sleep over a long and mentally tortuous journey.

‘Make sure y’got Dr. Ziegler ready to take this survivor off our hands the moment we touch down in Zurich’ Jesse instructed to the pilot as his lilting eyelids shut.

‘Understood, sir’.

****

*******

********

The shuttle was coated in a dusting of snow, a white fleece amongst the mountains. Jesse had only been to Zurich once, it was the official face of Overwatch and where most of the logistics happened.

As the shuttle began its descent Jesse opened his eyes and saw Genji’s body as he turned to his right. The reality of his injuries began to sink into Jesse, and he felt guilty about being able to sleep seeing him like that. He tried to remind himself that he had been more than impassioned when trying to help him in front of Reyes, but Jesse was often hard on himself.

A team of medical staff in scrubs and trauma gowns greeted Jesse as the doors clicked open and the air pressure equalising with a resounding thrush of wind. Amongst them stood a lady in dress clothes, a light blue frock of a demure length past her knees, heels and a string of pearls around her neck, with a white lab coat enveloping it all. She stood tall with her neck elevated clearly, she gave a clinical impression. Even her hair was formally up, tied neatly behind her head. She uttered a command in German to the team and proceeded to approach Jesse as Genji was wheeled away to an operating theatre.

‘You are Agent McCree, yes?’

‘Dr. Ziegler I presume?’ Jesse uttered, not so much in apprehension but unfamiliarity, with the interactions with notable persons of Overwatch, with Zurich, with the course of this mission.

‘Yes. I am the new Chief Medical Officer. I liaise with Command, offering my expertise. It is my understanding that Commander Reyes wishes for this man to receive any treatment necessary? Regardless of the casualty’s wishes?’. She sounded caring in her thought-process although unamused at the prospect of having to perform surgery on a non-consenting individual past the point of merely sustaining his life.

‘Wait how is Reyes?’

‘It is from my understanding that Commander Reyes is in the safe house in Japan and is expecting transport to Zurich shortly’ she informed him reservedly.

Satisfied, Jesse let out a slight huff of relief, rubbed his hand on his neck and began talking.

‘Well y’see he holds information vital to one of our operations in Japan. Not only that but he’s a ninja. And a mighty good’n I’m willing t’bet. He needs to walk Doc. Not just for us but for himself too’. Jesse was inflamed in his speaking. He recalled the fear in Genji’s eyes as his head stared up from Jesse’s lap, like a pup who didn’t understand its punishment. Jesse’s irrational guilt at not being able to offer more consolation after sleeping began to eat at him.

Seemingly impressed with his response, Dr. Ziegler smiled assuringly but also confidently that he would be treated. She paused before she re-entered the building with Jesse. ‘However I want you to be aware that trauma can involve a long and difficult recovery process, he may not be a man you wish to see when he first wakes up’.

‘Naw I can handle m’self, ‘sides with a renowned woman like you working on him he’s bound to be fine’.

Dr. Ziegler frowned with concern whilst glancing away from him, a realisation of the onus he had now placed upon her. On noticing this Jesse wished he had chosen his words more carefully.

***** ******

‘Agent McCree?’. An administrator of some sorts had bothered Jesse whilst he was eating and reading some reports in a small, unused on-call room of the Zurich facility. A small leafy plant stood in the corner of the musty orange accommodation, Jesse being firmly seated on an uncomfortable mattress.

‘This is he’ he drawled, making a rather formal and old-fashioned response sound cavalier and colloquial in nature, an instinctive way of Jesse to respond, disarming conversations in an attempt of friendship.

‘Dr. Ziegler is requesting your presence immediately’.

‘What for?’

But by that point the pencil-pusher had vanished in a rush.

Jesse hoisted himself up from the bed, surprised that anybody had even remembered his presence. Aside from his Western charm Jesse felt he was an otherwise forgettable man, certainly of no use in Headquarters.

The mechanical door slid open and he made his way towards the medical wing of the facility. As he navigated the winding metallic corridors, made homey by way of a few errant leafy plants, probably not even real ones from Jesse’s suspicions, he found Dr. Ziegler’s office. Numerous staff ran frantically past him in this sojourn.

‘Doc?’ Jesse inquired, accompanied by a few interspersed knocks in the door.

‘Agent McCree’. Dr. Ziegler opened the door in a severe manner. Her office was littered with unpacked boxes, a small frame stood on the desk but was turned from the entrance. With urgency she began marching to the recovery ward; Jesse scampered to keep up with her stride, in the process straightening his back, clearing his throat and readjusting his hat in a ritual of certainty.

‘In the operating theatre things went as well as one would expect’.

‘How so?’.

‘It was a perfect storm’.

Dr. Ziegler proceeded to explain the extent of his injuries to Jesse who dutifully memorised every detail as an act of penance for not spending the night watching Genji, despite the absurdity of it, merely getting some shut-eye.

_McCree looks up to Reyes and glares, lost and confused. Reyes grins a soft smile and winks. He shouts at a lackey to get them a cigarillo each and a coffee and continues marching down the metallic corridors, the fake plants nothing like the ones Jesse was used to in New Mexico. Everything was cold and unfeeling. ___

__‘Agent McCree?’ Dr. Ziegler sternly enquired._ _

__‘Hmh, yeah?’._ _

__‘Are we clear about the extent of his injuries?’_ _

__‘Yea y’said they were severe’._ _

__Dr. Ziegler immediately responded in a moment of passion, ‘... Beyond recovery, much of his body was irrevocably damaged. We did what we could and sent him to the recovery ward to convalesce. Beyond that there is the issue of his mental state after such a trauma. I wanted your consultation on-‘._ _

__Before Dr. Ziegler could finish her sentence the final set of doors opened upon Genji’s recovery room, and the man Jesse had first laid eyes on from his lap was chained to a bed rail. The enraged patient was screaming._ _

__‘Argh get this fucking thing off of me!’ Genji screeched in a croaked and artificial tone. His voice box modulator conflicting with his own vocal chords, creating a dissonance that filled the proceeding thirty yards in proximity to his room._ _

__‘Get it off me now! Now! Someone fucking do something before I kill every last one of you!’ He wailed in anguish._ _

__For a brief moment, Genji’s eyes locked with Jesse’s. Those sienna jewels had gone. In their place was an artificial vermillion glow. They still had the same pokey feeling that Jesse had first noticed in Genji’s dossier. Unlike when Jesse had held his head by the palms of his hands however, his eyes were now filled with an incontrovertible feeling of rage. His body was mostly prosthetic, save his right arm, torso and head. Presumably there was more left but it was covered up with cybernetic plating. It was dark grey, with beige patches and red biolights emanating from around critical areas. His flesh was still scarred from blade injuries where it was still exposed._ _

__When they locked eyes Genji paused for the briefest moment. If one was not paying close attention it could be mistaken as a mere pause for breath until his next barrage of furious insults, like every other breath before then. But there was a slight falter in his janky and unfamiliarised movements, a reprieve from the rage._ _

__‘What did you do to me?! Help!’, his shouting bordering on hysterical sobbing._ _

__Jesse turned to Dr. Ziegler. ‘Doc why have you got him chained up like that? He needs compassion; he was scared stiff when I found him in that house all beat’n bloody!._ _

__‘I’m sorry Agent McCree, we were unsure of how he would react and we were not in the business of risking anyone’s lives. In addition the enhancements we ma-‘._ _

__‘Enhancements?! You were meant to fix him not upgrade him’._ _

__‘There were no indi—Agent McCree if you have anyway of calming him I urge you to do so’._ _

__‘For starters y’need to release him. He’s not an animal’._ _

__‘I can’t condone that! Someone could get hurt!’._ _

__‘You’re hurtin’ him!’. Jesse examined Dr. Ziegler from top to bottom. In her demeanour there was apprehension. She seemed simultaneously skilled in her role but entirely unused to her new position. Compassion for Genji and concern for her subordinates could be found in equal measure’._ _

__‘It hurts! Make it stop! Please make it stop!’ Genji begged in a contradictorily demanding and upset tone._ _

__In Jesse’s pause and examination of Dr. Ziegler he considered the potential outcome of releasing Genji from his restraints; he heard Genji’s pleas for the next several seconds however and immediately gravitated towards the lock and released him._ _

__Genji bounded onto Jesse in an unnatural and jolted manner, toppling him to the floor. He slammed his fists into his chest and picked him up in a fugue state, throwing him against the wall, knocking over a wheeled bed and dislocating several panels from the walls, revealing the myriad of wires beneath them. Genji’s black tasseled hair remained, but the fringe was obscured by his visor. The locks dropped past his illuminated eyes, partially shielding the fury conveyed by his brow. He scratched and clawed at Jesse’s sides, still in shock from the tackle._ _

__‘Shimada! Genji stop!’ Jesse grunted as he shielded his face with his forearms, resisting attempts to fight back and risk damaging the potentially fragile workings of Genji’s prosthetics._ _

__‘Genji ya hurtin’ me! Y’have to stop! Please Genji!’._ _

__‘Genji I’m the one that done-‘ a punch to his stomach winded Jesse as his head bashed against the wall._ _

___He is in the sparring room. Captain Ana Amari peers down from the gallery. Reyes is nowhere to be seen. A jeer comes from another agent. A tear runs down Jesse’s cheek as he punches him in retaliation, right at the jaw. The agent blocks his attacks but Jesse keeps shouting, keeps attempting to hurt him until he is exhausted and is pushed off to the side. Everyone leaves as Jesse sits in the corner of the room, head in his lap. Captain Amari is still watching. ____ _

____Jesse rolls his head to his side. Dr. Ziegler is gone._ _ _ _

____‘Argh’. Blood is trickling down his chin, and he can feel pulses of pain coming from every nerve of his body. He finally notices Genji is leaning against another wall across from him. His fists are dripping scarlet, not only Jesse’s blood but his own he ventures. His eyes are wet, as are his cheeks, rubbed of any evidence of weakness. His breathing is spasmodic, inconsistent, rattling with the sound of the filters in his throat. His eyes are closed and facing the wall, his body propped up against it._ _ _ _

____After a few cursory inhales to gain his bearings, Jesse looks to Genji and merely retorts ‘Y’got me real good ya know that? I wonder if that’s their handiwork or if you were always that talented. Guess that’s why we wanted to help ya’. Genji’s suddenly quieted breathing indicated he heard what Jesse had said, but he made no movement to acknowledge it._ _ _ _

____Jesse groaned as he pushed himself up, using the wall as a support. He then trembled a few feet forward to meet Genji by his side, sliding down using his back to position himself next to him. The hairs of Jesse’s arm bristled softly against Genji’s skin on his own, Jesse’s strained but hearty breaths making for meaningfully significant contact between the two with each inhale._ _ _ _

____‘It’s okay. You’re going to be okay y’hear me?’. Jesse placed a palm on Genji’s shoulder and rubbed it rhythmically until his breathing returned to a normal pace and he ceased hyperventilating. Jesse wanted to rest his head on his shoulder, brush his hair against his side in an act of understanding like a dog would, that understanding of the visceral fear that eats at you. He did not want to push his luck however._ _ _ _

____Angela returned with a detail of guards, although was quick to send them away on seeing the two nestled together in a corner of the shell-shocked recovery room, lest they antagonise Genji further. The two men had their eyes closed. Both sunken into themselves, seemingly in another world._ _ _ _

______ _ _

***** ******

‘Two of your ribs are broken too Agent McCree’, Dr. Ziegler said. There was no emotion in her voice unlike earlier. No disapproving tone to indicate judgement towards Jesse or his decisions. She was withdrawn, rarely taking time to look up from her work.

‘It’s real nice of ya t’give me the time of day as the Chief Medic but don’t you have more important things to do?’.

She continued typing from a workstation.

Jesse decided to prod her further. ‘What was with these enhancements then? I thought you were meant to fix the poor guy not soup him up like a car!’.

She turned towards him finally. It took an outburst to get people to pay attention to Jesse beyond his getup, at least he figured as much.

‘Firstly we could only go by what reports said. To replicate his skills in the way you insisted required drastic estimation on our part. That as-‘.

‘Y’mean you just guessed? Took a man’s life and played chance with it?’.

‘No I—we didn’t do that! We gave him the best quality of care possible!’. A tear was forming in the edges of both her eyes, her once neat hair now down and hanging by her sides, a retreat from her once professional exterior.

‘Yeah by treating him like a guinea pig! He’s more prosthetic than flesh now!’. Jesse had turned from inquisitorial to invasive in his attack for the broken man.

‘We couldn’t risk using outdated techniques! He would have been dead if he was anywhere else in the world but here! He has the biggest chance of recovering full motor functions and then some. Regardless, Commander Reyes insisted the enhancements be made, that he was to be a member of Blackwatch and that his performance was vital to the organisation’.

Jesse had held back the instinct to interrupt her again. He could see he was hurting the doctor in his witch-hunt against her actions.

‘He did did he?’. The cowboy seemed tired of fighting.

‘Look Doc I’m-‘

‘I’m sorry...’, tears were firmly rolling down her cheeks and dripping over her jaw, landing on the lapels of her lab coat. She wiped them and stood almost at attention to Jesse’s next question. A soldier ready to receive orders despite her seniority in rank.

‘S’okay, I’m sorry too’. Jesse did not have the energy to offer a more heartfelt response, he was thoroughly exhausted from the confrontation with Genji and the pain medication had begun to kick in. ‘I just wondered if I could rest now’.

She cleared her throat and began sweetly and softly, her natural way to respond Jesse figured, ‘Yes, there is a spare convalescence room past Mr. Shimada’s. I believe he is now co-operating, for lack of a better word, with the nurses now; your invention seems to have helped in its own way, Agent McCree.

‘Well I’m glad’. Jesse limped over to the door, turning to say goodbye to the physician until he noticed her sitting at her disk, clutching the frame turned away from him earlier. In a trance of her own, Jesse decided to leave her be.

As he made his way to the spare hospital bed, Jesse mulled over the intentions of Reyes and why he would subject Genji to these upgrades. Did they really have to enhance his abilities? His tendency to dote on mishap cases like Jesse was lost to the gunslinger in this case; if he did care is this how he showed it? Perhaps Jesse was overreacting, if only in defence of Genji who at this point couldn’t even defend himself. He was fond of having someone to watch over. It proved a distraction from his own shortcomings in bonding. That he was capable of seeing the mission through to the end when he found him in that room so many hours ago.

As he approached his own room he paused by Genji’s door. After a hesitant breath, he pressed the panel button and opened the entrance. Genji was lying in a bed, with a pane of glass separating them. He was tossing and turning in his place until he noticed Jesse. Their eyes caught each other’s again, this time for more than just a glance, but a long and nigh-ending few seconds. In that familiar, investigatory dart of the pupils, Jesse felt reminded of his own regrets. His eyes softened and muscles relaxed at the sight of the cherry-coloured optics of the man he inexplicably bonded with in their tussle. Jesse attempted to pull a smile at this point, perhaps a signature wink and tug of his hat to follow, but Genji recoiled. His eyes widened in fear and disgust, and he turned to face away from the door. He didn’t move after that, Jesse waited a few moments before departing.

‘Is it me? Or does he just need time to recover? Jesse whispered to himself as he entered his own room. It had warm, orange walls like the on-call room, cosy as morning finally approached. Net curtains covered the window which allowed a yellow light to enter. There was a plant on a desk in the corner. He brushed his index finger and his thumb against the thick, rubbery leaves. Real.

‘Huh’. Jesse huffed to himself.

He proceeded to sit at the head of the bed. He placed his hat on the bedside table, slipped off his torn, black serape, forgetting he ripped it off for Genji’s injuries. He proceeded to take off his boots, jeans, chaps, chest-plate, greaves, socks and shirt, leaving himself only in his used dark grey boxers and undershirt. He pushed himself under the thin and crisp linens of the medical wing. He missed his room at Gibraltar right now. His personally requisitioned quilts, his pyjamas, soft and private comforts, though he had little to hide in that department. The regulars had to do their part to make Overwatch a bit more homey.

‘What a night’ Jesse chuckled to himself as he closed his eyes.

‘What a night...’

**Author's Note:**

> Hello. This is the first piece of fiction I have created, so I hope you enjoy! I planned this out as having a ten part series in Blackwatch, a two to four part intermission and a ten part series post-recall. I want Jesse and Genji to be the main focus although I’ll pepper in other characters and sub-plots to make the rather large fiction seem real and not super zoomed in, as I reckon a continuous 50,000 word narrative on just Jesse and Genji alone will make the work rather overwhelming, although I’ll always try and link it back to their relationship if not at least themselves. I’m afraid it is a slow burn for this first chapter. I also hope the balance between description and dialogue is adequate. Again, I hope you enjoy my first foray into fan-fiction!


End file.
